1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an audio system, such as efficient use of communication bandwidth reserved for a surround sound audio system. The surround sound audio systems typically include a surround sound audio transmitter as well as a surround sound audio receiver. The surround sound systems may be, for example, 5.1 (six channels), 7.1 (eight channels) or may contain more number of channels. There are many other proprietary and industry standards that define multi channel audio systems. The sound reproduction in these systems is much closer to reality, and allows use of special effects. For example, the “Dolby 5.1” based surround process involves placing left, center, right, left surround, right surround speakers and a subwoofer speaker, all placed appropriately in a hall. The result is a more balanced listening environment.
The sources for surround sound systems are multi channel recording in storage media, where for each of the surround sound channels a track is dedicated. The audio source for a surround sound receiver may be a Cable, Satellite or Fiber Set-Top-Box (STB), an antenna, a digital videodisk, a Personal Video Recorder (PVR), a computer network, TV broadcasts, game units and the Internet, among other sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today there are a number of audio/video devices that have audio transmission functionality and receive surround sound signals. Some of them reproduce audio signals in ways which are not consistent with the surround sound output. That is, the transmitters and the receivers come with different capabilities. However, the surround sound systems reserve a large bandwidth and have channels assigned for different microphone positions.
Audio signals from legacy music programs can be recorded in either single channel (mono) or two channels (stereo). When these mono or stereo signals are used in a surround sound system, a portion of the bandwidth reserved for the surround sound signals may be left unutilized.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.